Approaching the half way point of the firstFIDE Grand Prix tournament in London, Hikaru Nakamura is smack in the middle of the field. He entered the first of two rest days with a win, a loss, and three draws. Boris Gelfand leads with 3.5 from five rounds.

The Grand Prix is a qualifying series for the planned 2014 Candidates Tournament, to determine who will challenge the winner of the next World Championship in 2013. Nakamura is scheduled to compete in a total of four Grand Prix events, with his final place awarded by adding the results of his best three performances. In addition, the twelve players in London are competing for $220,000 inprizes.

After dropping his first game to Gelfand, Nakamura rebounded promptly by beating Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who fell into a mating net in time pressure. In round three, Nakamura missed a win in a difficult rook and pawn endgame, allowing Peter Leko to escape with a draw.

Endgame tablebasesreveal that several moves are winning for white, but Nakamura's 61.Rb7 is not one of them.

After a relatively uneventful draw with Veselin Topalov in round four, Nakamura benefited from an oversight by Lenier Dominguez, who missed a crushing variation, during Tuesday's fifth round. His third draw in a row.